How to generate data with an entity?

About

This howto will show you how to generate data with an entity generator.

Example

Basic

Example of a basic entity generator resource that uses the firstname entity to fill a firstname column

kind: generator
spec:
  MaxRecordCount: 10
  Columns:
    - name: firstname
      Type: varchar
      data-supplier:
        type: entity

You can see the output with tabul print

tabul data print generator/entity-basic--generator.yml@howto

firstname
---------
Cassandra
Dodie
Marcelo
Vicente
Elenora
Albert
Dimple
Dollie
Johnie
Lenna

Meta Column Dependency

A firstname depends on the gender. Each entity may have one or more meta columns such as gender.

To express this dependency, you can use the meta_columns attribute to map:

a local column (ie from the generator)
to a entity column (ie from the data set)

kind: generator
spec:
  MaxRecordCount: 30
  Columns:
    - name: gender
      Type: Varchar
      data-supplier:
        type: histogram
        arguments:
          Buckets:
            M: 1.0
            F: 2.0
    - name: firstname
      Type: Varchar
      data-supplier:
        type: entity
        arguments:
          name: firstname
          locale: en
          metaColumns:
            gender: gender

You can see the output with tabul print

tabul data print generator/entity-meta-columns--generator.yml@howto

gender   firstname
------   ---------
M        Boris
F        Britta
M        Boris
F        Ashley
F        Althea
M        Amal
F        Britt
F        Beatris
F        Betty
F        Alverta
F        Ashley
F        Bonnie
F        Barbra
F        Brittani
F        Amanda
M        Alphonso
F        Alyce
F        Alverta
F        Britta
M        Amal
F        Alysa
M        Amado
M        Arnold
F        Barbara
F        Beckie
F        Becky
F        Bonnie
M        Arnoldo
F        Amanda
F        Ashley